CIMSS Satellite Blog

Visible images, centered at Seattle, from (left to right) GOES-17, GOES-15, GOES-16 and GOES-13 [click to play animation | MP4]

The GOES-13 satellite was brought out of storage for annual maintenance activities on 13 February 2019 — allowing for a unique view of the Seattle, Washington area from that satellite as well as GOES-15, GOES-16 (GOES-East) and GOES-17 (GOES-West). After receiving significant snowfall during the previous several days, snowcover was abundant across that region. The brighter-white snow-covered mountain peaks south and southeast of Seattle (especially that of Mount Rainier) were also apparent on visible imagery from all 4 satellites.

Note that visible images from the older GOES-13/GOES-15 are not as bright as those from the newer GOES-16/GOES-17 — performance of visible detectors on the previous generation of satellites degraded over time, while the new GOES-R series benefits from on-orbit calibration of the visible detectors to mitigate this effect.

Data from these 4 GOES were received and processed by the SSEC Data Center.

SnOMG! Detailed list of snow reports: https://t.co/TLWHOeEyWr. Thanks to everyone who has submitted measurements! #wawx #wasnow pic.twitter.com/TXAkRUf2cu

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) February 12, 2019

from CIMSS Satellite Blog http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/31795